I wanted to try RAID on my PC. I have no clue which one is better. I read PC Magazine September 2008 edition in their test PC (or DreamPC whatever) RAID0 with 2x Western Digital Velociraptor 300GB 10000RPM and RAID5 on 3x Samsung 1TB. SO here is my questions:

I read that RAID0 is not safe but I think this is where Acronis True Image can help, right, or not? Can Acronis True Image 11 Home backup and restore RAID? I can’t seem to find this info.

I read the 3x Samsung 1TB in RAID5 can make total 2TB? So the other 1TB will be a backup incase it fails?

Lastly, this RAID0 for OS and RAID5 for data a good setup for average users?

An expensive way too go.
If wanting Raid for performance, then Riad0 is the best option.
But this is not really a Raid set up.
Hence no fault tolerance.
Yes True Image will clone/backup Raid0 to another drive. This drive doesn’t even have to be Raided.
Of course when wanting to restore, Raid setup is necessary.
Other Raid setups, if you have True Image are not necessary.
No real performance gain.
The mirroring can be overcome with True Image by updating your backups.
You can set this up @ time of creating your 1st backup.
The problem with Raid is that in terms of what you’re referring to (s/w Raiding).
It is the s/w that fails most.
So even with Raid1 for example data is lost.

Thanks for your points, although I find them hard to understand (because your points are somehow not related to each others sorry) but I appreciate it. I don’t plan to get Velociraptor or 3x Samsung 1TB, they are just for examples. I’m planning to get 74GB raptors or 150GB ones, and I have few 500GB seagates laying around.

ANyway, more questions:

From the above and from what I read, there’s a lot of problems in RAID setup eq data loss and failures? What if we just use it for regular home usage not for servers, does RAID still have high risk compare to single drive setups?

You mentioned softwares, what kind of software needed for RAID setup? Which one is better?

Will RAID card for example from Areca or Adaptec boost performance, compare to onboard?